What The Hidden Spiritual Counterparts of Major Religions Tried to Tell Us
And how all of these traditions showed us how to tap into more subtle states of consciousness
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Religion without Spirituality
When I was growing up in southern Arizona I went to a Baptist school for a few years. I was required to participate in certain rituals (church and a little bit of prayer), follow certain rules (don’t read Harry Potter because it’s witch craft) and believe in a certain God (so you can go to heaven). Eventually, I asked to transfer to a public school because all the rule-following was a bit too much for me.
I remember that apart from prayer, which was done more as a tradition rather than a deep meditative practice, there wasn’t any talk of spirituality or how it feels to have a real connection with the divine. Sermons in the morning wouldn’t be made relevant to my life, but often just scared me and made me feel guilty or shameful about my thoughts and being a “sinful” boy.
This was religion without spirituality. It emphasized the social, constructed aspect of rites, rituals and beliefs, without focusing on the subjective, first-person experience. Sadly, most religion is like this, and it left out an entire universe of beautiful transcendental experiences that we all have access to as humans.
This is the common drawback of religions, in particular in the West. The East tends to have a deeper connection with spirituality, but even then you still have those traditions that under-emphasize the idea of self-transcendence. If you look a little bit closer, though, you can see that every religion has (or at some point had) a spiritual counterpart, and they all said something pretty similar: know thyself. Let’s quickly explore three of these spiritual traditions.
The Gnostics (Christianity’s counterpart)
Christianity had the Gnostics, who back in the 2nd century believed that salvation came through gnosis – a direct, personal experience and knowledge of the divine. The term 'gnosis' (γνῶσις) derives from the ancient Greek word denoting 'knowledge'. They thought that the material world was a creation of a lesser god, and the true God could only be reached through inner illumination. Gnostics faced persecution from mainstream Christian authorities who considered their beliefs heretical.
The Gospel of Thomas is a collection of sayings attributed to Jesus, discovered in 1945 as part of the Nag Hammadi library, a cache of ancient manuscripts found in Egypt. What sets the Gospel of Thomas apart from the canonical gospels is its focus on the teachings of Jesus rather than a narrative of his life. Also, it echoes a lot of the beliefs that Gnostics had.
Here is a quote from the Gospel of Thomas:
"If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you."
What you find in common with many of the spiritual traditions is that they sound very similar. The above quote might as well have come from the Buddha, the teaching of the Tao, or the Upanishads.
A lot of them, including the Gnostics, also talk about “seeing the light” or “becoming the light.” One of the first Substack posts I wrote was about the experience of bright lights during deep meditative states (called nimittas in Buddhism).1 This is a commonality of spiritual experiences and Jesus’ frequent mention of the “light within.”
This isn’t surprising when you recognize that they are all essentially talking about the same thing — your inner experience — just across different cultures.
The Sufis (Islam’s counterpart)
The ultimate goal of Sufism is to achieve a state of union with God, often referred to as "annihilation in God" or "fana." This state involves transcending the ego and experiencing a complete merging of the individual soul with the Divine. It is actually a 7 or 8 stage process to enlightenment, which echoes most other spiritual traditions that have about the same number of steps.
Sufis, like other Muslims, emphasize the importance of surrendering to the will of God and also make a pilgrimage to Mecca. However, a main difference is that Sufism is characterized by its emphasis on love, devotion, and the pursuit of spiritual enlightenment (rather than going to heaven). As Sufi philosopher Al-Ghazali says:
“The heart is a polished mirror. You must wipe it clean of the veil of dust that has gathered upon it, because it is destined to reflect the light of divine secrets."
Sufis engage in devotional practices, such as chanting, meditation, and whirling, to achieve states of spiritual ecstasy and closeness to the divine. The custom of khalwa was a period of seclusion that lasted up to 40 days, a necessity for any seeker looking to go inward. And of course, the iconic whirling dervishes perform a ritualistic dance called the Sama that symbolizes the rotation of the cosmos and the soul's journey towards God.
The spiritual ecstasy they experience doing the whirling dance has been studied and called the “Sufi Vortex.” Those who perform the dance report feeling they were in a “nonjudgmental body–mind state, sweeping them to submit and surrender until they rose above the separation and duality of this world into a unity and wholeness experience.”
Advaita Vedanta (Hinduism’s counterpart)
Advaita Vedanta is a philosophy within Hinduism that emphasizes the unity of all existence. At its core lies the idea that everything is interconnected, and that the true self (Atman) is ultimately the same as the universal consciousness (Brahman). It's like realizing that a drop of water is made of the same substance as the entire ocean. The self is an illusion created by our ego, and everything is ultimately an expression of the same underlying reality.
The foundational texts of Advaita Vedanta include the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Brahma Sutras. Fun fact: The Legend of Bagger Vance, a 2000 film about golf starring Matt Damon and Will Smith is roughly based on the message in the Bhagavad Gita.
While not persecuted in the same overt manner as Gnostics or Sufis, Advaita Vedanta has sometimes led to tensions between Advaita Vedanta adherents and other sects. Advaita Vedanta employs a unique method of self-inquiry known as "Neti, Neti,” a Sanskrit phrase that translates to "not this, not this" in English (a guide on how to do that practice here). This approach encourages individuals to negate or eliminate everything that is not their true essence in order to arrive at the understanding of their ultimate reality.
A quote from the Chandogya Upanishad:
"The self is beyond the intellect; it is subtle, it is the seer, it is imperishable; therefore, it is called the true self."
Organized Religion is Not Bad
This depth and similarity of these spiritual teachings does not somehow imply that there is no value in organized or mainstream religions. There is a bit of Yin and Yang to this, a sense of balance and complementarity.2 We don’t have to ignore or throw away one side completely.
The more structured and ritualistic aspects of organized religions (the "Yang") can provide a framework for ethical living, communal worship, and a sense of identity. On the other hand, the mystical dimensions (the "Yin") offer a pathway for those seeking a deeper, more personal connection with the divine and a profound understanding of existence.
The problem is that we usually focus on one or the other — but spirituality in solitude can be quite lonely, and religion without spirituality can be quite dry. So, my point is that you can have both.
What the Spiritual Traditions Are Saying
The Gnostics, Sufis and Advaita Vedanta all essentially say the same thing - “the kingdom of heaven is within,” not somewhere out there. They emphasize practices to self-transformation, from meditation, to contemplation, to living a moral life.
And interestingly most of these traditions even make it very explicit how to get to awakening and how those stages look and feel like from an experiential perspective. A lot of the stages are actually very similar.
Spiritual development has many traditions, models and practices. But at a basic level, you start look inward and go deep. The states you progressively experience look like this, broadly speaking:
Gross - This is the level of everyday sensory experiences and the physical body. Many of us are stuck in this realm, focused on the self/ego, and chasing experiences and money.
Subtle - This involves the exploration of your subtle energies, emotions, and non-physical dimensions of existence. You might start to notice how your mental state influences your body and vice versa.
Causal - The causal realm represents a deeper level of consciousness where the sense of individuality begins to dissolve. You could have this experience hiking in nature, fasting for a few days, or deep in a meditative state.
Non-dual - This is a state of pure awareness where distinctions between individual and universal consciousness blur. Your sense of self completely drops a way for a few moments, or longer, and the illusion of self is revealed.
A spiritual practice takes you from heavy or “gross” physical sensations (your body, pain, emotions) to noticing more “subtle” parts of your mind and body, until it eventually all evaporates — your ego included — and any perceived subject-object divide evaporates, leading to non-duality. And that can come through prayer, meditation, or deep breathing, and even service to others.
Anyone Can Experience these States Directly
There is nothing airy-fairy or wishy-washy about this. Shamans have been experiencing these states for at least 50,000 years, and practically all contemplative practices talk about awakening, spiritual enlightenment and achieving transcendent states. The only reason it’s (probably) not a huge part of your life is because we live in a modern society that looks more at the external, material world than it does at our internal world.
With a little bit of training and direction (and in some cases, in a single sitting), you can experience any of these more subtler states. As I mentioned in last week’s newsletter, your current world beliefs and viewpoint will drastically alter how you interpret these states of consciousness and how you can integrate them into your daily life. It’s important to consider different ways you are “growing up” (emotional, moral maturity, worldview) along with how you are “waking up” and balance these in a skillful way.
Nowadays even in our largely materialistic culture, these are all accessible, thanks to an explosion of apps like Headspace, Waking Up, and Othership and a resurgence of interest in spirituality. Most people give up meditation too quickly, but stick at it for a few weeks and you will almost certainly notice something different about how you perceive reality.
I co-hosted a Sound Bath/singing bowls meditation event the other week with my friend Tim who makes complex vibrations with over 50 singing bowls. That was a real trip and while I felt a bit sensitive afterwards it was super easy to drop into a deep meditative state for the following 3 days. Others who went reported feeling very relaxed and focused the following days.
There is no one correct way to do this and you can find a practice that speaks to you and that works for you. You can tap into these states of consciousness in so many different ways — sound, prayer, silence, fasting, psychedelics, breathing — to name a few. Different strokes for different folks. You have many options if you seek them out.
I’d love to hear from you. Share your comments below!
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I purposefully am not talking about Buddhism right now because the core of Buddhism is really this internal search for liberation, and I wanted to show how most of all religion have the spiritual counterpart.
Post-modern or pluralistic views say that everything is relative and we should be inclusive, yet this view is limiting because it itself excludes and rejects those who do not agree with that relativism. I think you can transcend and include both religion and spirituality, unlike what Sam Harris (who otherwise is very spiritually developed) says in his book Waking Up — where you acknowledge there is some good in everything.